Gluten-Free, Allergy-Free, and Delicious

For those of us out there who have to carefully watch what we eat because of special dietary restrictions (or because we just want to watch our health), it's wonderful that right here in downtown Nashua we have a bakery that caters to us. Just because we're gluten intolerant or have a dairy allergy doesn't mean we have to forgo the pleasures of delicious baked goods! Patisserie Bleu offers a long list of gluten free, vegan, sugar-free, and dairy-free treats that are equally as tasty and beautiful as the 'real' thing (you'd never know the difference!). When we sat down the other day to talk Deb Soby, owner of Patisserie Bleu, to find out more about her allergy-free baking, she had just pulled out a tray of the most delicious smelling blueberry muffins (gluten-free!) out of the oven. . .

How did it all start?

Deb: A few months after we opened Patisserie Bleu in 2006, a mother came in and asked me if I could bake a birthday cake that her two sons could eat. They both had dairy allergies, and to make it even more complicated, one had a nut allergy and the other a soy allergy, which meant that I couldn't use soy as a dairy replacement. It was challenging to come up with a cake with no dairy or soy! But, my goal is to try to find a way to make anything that a customer requests and I always love a culinary challenge! I found an allergy-free recipe that used olive oil instead of butter. The frosting was more challenging. I ended up finding a dairy-free and soy-free recipe in a kosher magazine.

Who orders special cakes?

Deb: I get many requests from people who have all sorts of reasons for ordering special cakes. Some follow cultural dietary guidelines, some make a conscious choice not to eat cakes with gluten or sugar, some people are lactose intolerant. Some people choose vegan diets because they don't want to eat eggs and others have celiac disease, which means they can't digest gluten. All the bakeries in the Nashua area refer their customers to us for special dietary cakes. We just finished a sugar-free wedding cake for a client, and she told me that Patisserie Bleu was the only bakery in Nashua who would do it for her. Not many other bakeries want to take the responsibility for special dietary needs or for having the right ingredients in stock all the time.

With so many special diets -gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, soy-free, sugar free, and so on -how do you come up with so many allergy-free recipes?

Deb: I always like trying out different recipes and seeing what works best. I research my recipes by looking through a combination of professional cookbooks and online recipes, and then I experiment with the ingredients until I come up with a result I like. Whether it's a is flourless, vegan, sugar-free recipe, or whatever the challenge, it gives me a lot of pleasure to create home baked goods for people who ordinarily can't have them.

What do you substitute for flour in your gluten-free offerings?

Deb: In my gluten-free recipes I replace regular flour with a combination of other flours, such as rice flour, tapioca flour, and potato. For these flours I also add xanthum gum, which brings it all together.

Aside from cakes and desserts, what other kind of allergy free goodies do you make?

Deb: I just made an order of gluten-free muffins (blueberry muffins, banana muffins, and also cinnamon chip) that also have flax seed in them, which gives the muffins a great texture. I've also made vegan cheesecake with tofutti, sugar-free cheesecake and pies, gluten-free brownies and cakes - I'll pretty much try anything anyone wants me to make. Sometimes customers come in with their own recipes, and I'm happy to do that too.

What are your most popular requests?

Deb: Gluten-free and vegan chocolate birthday cakes and specialty cakes, sugar-free wedding cakes, and gluten-free cupcakes, cookies, muffins, and torts are just a few of the things I bake regularly for clients.

Sounds delicious. Thank you, Deb.

Watch out for Deb Soby on New Hampshire Chronicle this Friday, February 13, on Chanel 9!